


A Most Confounding Conversation

by afteriwake



Series: In So Few Words [273]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Affairs, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Awesome Molly Hooper, BAMF Sebastian Moran, Confused Molly Hooper, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Developing Molly Hooper/Sebastian Moran, F/M, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Jealous Sebastian, Kiss On The Back Of The Hand, Marriage Proposal, Mentioned Irene Adler, Mentioned Irene Adler/Sherlock Holmes, Mentioned Mary Morstan, Mentioned Sherlock Holmes - Freeform, POV Molly, POV Molly Hooper, Secluded Alcove, Serious Sebastian Moran, Smitten Sebastian Moran, Surprise Kissing, Victorian Molly Hooper, Victorian Sebastian Moran, Waltzing, relationship conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27733768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: In the midst of a carefully plotted case smuggling a battered wife back to her home country, Major Moran has a proposition for Margaret.
Relationships: Molly Hooper/Sebastian Moran
Series: In So Few Words [273]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/709206
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	A Most Confounding Conversation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dreamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/gifts).



> An answer to a prompt from **Dreamin** (" _Laying a gentle kiss to the back of the other’s hand. -- Sebolly_ ").

“You said that your contact would be here,” Margaret Hooper said from behind her fan to her detective agency partner Mary Morstan. They were amid the crush that was at the Flaversham ball and Margaret was already too warm for comfort. She wished to get a glass of champagne or even lemonade, but none of the waiters walking by would come near them. It wasn’t fair that they had to stay away from the French doors and to have nothing to quench her thirst?

It was going to put her in the most tumultuous of moods, which was not what they needed tonight. While Mary’s husband worked with the exclusive Sherlock Holmes, Margaret and Mary were of a different sort. They specialized in female clients, in problems that needed a deft touch and sometimes a daring escape, and they were not listed in any reputable directories. Their clientele came to them by word of mouth only, highly vetted and highly recommended.

And tonight they needed to get the help of the illustrious opera singer Irene Adler to sneak a young Parisian beauty back to Paris. She had some money and some status, and her family, once they had found out her husband had raised a hand to her, wanted her back home. But the husband was a bastard, and that meant they needed some...masculine...help.

She hated thinking about how masculine Major Moran was when she was already hot and frustrated.

Oh, the man was a smirking, gloating, handsome man with ginger hair and a firm but gentle grip. And she had taken advantage of some clients offering French letters to women who wanted to have rendevous with men outside of their loveless marriages to have a...tryst..with him, finding just what that firm grip could do.

And then he had left her in bed in the morning, by herself.

She was unmarried, a lady by reputation more than anything else, but also a spinster by age definitions. No one wanted to marry her, but she made a tidy sum working with Mary, taking occasional cases from Sherlock that involved her skill at pathology. She had fancied him for a bit, but he was enamored with Miss Adler and the feeling was mutual, though they were both careful to hide it. One night with too many spirits and a friendly ear and Sherlock had let spill some secrets.

And she had as well. If he had been at the ball tonight, he would have teased that Major Moran was well endowed, wasn’t he? 

She should have kept her mouth shut.

She felt a hand pull her away from her corner, the firm but gentle grip all too familiar, but before she could huff out a missive in Major Moran’s direction he pulled her into a waltz. “You bastard,” she hissed.

“Hello, Molly,” he said with a warm smile.

“You left me alone.”

“You still have a reputation, even if it means nothing to you.”

“You left me alone after we…”

“Reputation. You need marriage to enjoy a tryst.” She made to pull away from him and flounce back to Mary but he pulled her close, and then as soon as he was able steered them to one of the secluded alcoves and kissed her passionately. Any retort melted as his tongue sought comfort in her mouth and she sighed into the kiss. The bastard, he knew just how to play her.

“I ache at night, thinking of you,” he whispered, holding her close.

“I feel the same way.”

“Then marry me. Then I can satisfy you every night.”

“But you do not love me. We’re only...useful...to each other.”

“Then I’ll just have to prove it.” He lifted her hand up and kissed the back of it gently, his eyes never leaving her. “Leave Lord Milton to me. Your Parisian prize will be delivered to Miss Adler before Sherlock can get rid of his French letter from their tryst.”

“You’ll ruin his fun,” she murmured.

“He introduced me to you and you will not do me the honor of becoming my wife yet. He deserves it.” There was an amused glint in his eyes. “But as to your claim, I will properly court you if that’s what you want.”

“I just want you,” she found herself saying, wearing her heart on her sleeve.

“And you will have me, body and soul and heart,” he said solemnly. “But first, there is business to take care of.” He kissed her hand again and slipped away into the crowd.

She needed more than champagne, she realized as she started to feel lightheaded from the whirlwind conversation. She needed a stiff glass of port, and the advice of a married woman, Once they contacted Miss Adler, it would be time for her and Mary to be off, and for her to puzzle out just what the conversation in the alcove meant for her future as Miss Hooper and how it involved Major Moran.


End file.
